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Facebook has apologised after it removed a video from a Swedish breast cancer charity because it represented naked breasts using simple, animated pink circles.

The Swedish Cancer Society was forced in the meantime to find a workaround to Facebook's strict ban on depictions of certain parts of the human anatomy, by replacing the circles with pink squares. The animated video was designed to teach women how to check their breasts for potential cancer.

The free content ad network said it was "very sorry," adding: "our team processes millions of advertising images each week, and in some instances we incorrectly prohibit ads. This image does not violate our ad policies. We apologise for the error and have let the advertiser know we are approving their ads."

We understand that you have to have rules about the content published on your platform. But you must also understand that one of our main tasks is to disseminate important information about cancer—in this case breast cancer After trying to meet your control for several days without success, we have now come up with a solution that will hopefully make you happy: Two pink squares!

This can not possibly offend you, or anyone. Now we can continue to spread our important breast school without upsetting you.

Facebook's advertising policies, like its community standards, ban images that are "overly sexual, imply nudity, show excessive amounts of skin or cleavage, or focus unnecessarily on body parts—even if portrayed for artistic or educational reasons." The data-processing giant apparently banned the ad automatically.